The Opal Eyes
by AZUREstrand
Summary: Enter the odd world of Sinika. While she was still a child, she lost her sight when her village was ravaged by a previously undocumented wyvern. Now, finally an adult in all rights, she is determined to become a Guild approved Hunter. But first, she has to get a liaison. Who would risk sending a blind hunter on a Guild quest? She'll have to prove herself first.(on haiatus)
1. First Hunt

The Opal Eyes

I

The heat of the sun on that day was irrelevant to the victims of the Ruby Demon's blazing breath. It was the middle of the worst summer the Keppal village had seen in recorded history. The vegetable crops had already long since withered in the heat, leaving the village only with nuts and grains to live on. It was fortunate for the village that their spring had not dried up, but on this day, that suddenly seemed pointless. It had happened at high noon. The heat started from beneath. The air shimmered so violently above the sandy paths of the village that it seemed as if the ground could have been on fire itself. A fire started in one of the silos, and yet nobody ran to extinguish it. Instead, the villagers were gathered at the fissure. It had appeared when the summer first started. It occasionally erupted, sending mostly ash and smoke as a shroud over the village, but this time, the glow could be seen deep down. A heat so intense that not even a puff of smoke could rise from it. If it weren't for the heavy shoes the villagers wore, they would have been wailing as the heat blistered their feet. If only they could have known. Their Ruby Demon was none other than Akantor, but this was a subspecies unlike anything they could have known about. It was the source of their infernal summer. They didn't know what was happening until their skin started to blister where it was exposed to the rising heat. Then it came. It erupted from the ground at the heart of town, followed by a pool of molten rock it had violently carried with it from its subterranean home. It treated the chief's clay brick and thatch house as no different than the dense rock and clay it had burrowed up through to get there. Immediately, the thatch was ablaze, sending burning chaff through the air where they in turn lit more of the sun-dried thatch in surrounding homes. A few men rallied around the beast where it stood half in the rubble of the burning home, and several spears lodged in the still molten rock coating the creature's hide before it turned into glassy rock which cracked as the creature's muscled rolled underneath. It was over in an instant. The last the fleeing remnant of the village heard as they ran from the smoking ruins of their ancestral home was the screech of half a dozen men simultaneously burning to death, gored by searing teeth and caked in fast-cooling molten rock.

This may seem like a very grim way to start off the story of a brave hunter, but adversity breeds strength, so they say. Among the survivors of Keppal was a young girl named Sinika who had only just barely been plucked from the village in time to live at all. Her sight was completely gone, lost in an instant as searing thatch chaff had blown across her face. The burning plant matter had left a splash scar running from one cheek and across half her face looking like a clawed hand. It hadn't healed well, but she never gave it a second's thought in the years afterwards. She was not weighed down by any self-consciousness of her appearance. Even before that day, she'd been a serious child. Far more serious than would have been good for any child. Her parents were distraught when they realized their little girl would simply not let herself be a child, even at the tender and impressionable age of 9. Many would claim she was an old soul, but even for her seriousness, there was a certain lack of social wisdom to her. Now, she has finally turned 20... the prime starting age for a hunter for the Hunting Guild. Her family had hoped she would follow in the path of her wyverian ancestors and taken up the life of a blacksmith. Gods knew she would have been a capable hand at it, and at first they'd been given hope by her efforts to learn smithing even with her lack of sight. She'd even become good at it. Nobody could shape bone and scale better than her in the small circle of smiths she'd been trained alongside. When she'd asked her father to transcribe a submission for the Hunters' Guild, he'd outright refused. How could a blind girl hunt wyverns? She'd gone through with it without him, though. A felyne chef had agreed to out her application for a fee, which she readily paid. She'd made some miraculously well ballanced dual blades for an established hunter in the past month, and that had been more than enough to pay for a simple transcription job. Then came the hard part. Finding a guild liaison to set her up with hunts would be exceedingly difficult without pre-existing proof of her prowess on the field. This is where Rogishen came in. While going with a guild liaison guaranteed a proper assessment of your talents, it was possible to pick up field work directly from people who were too poor to go through the Hunters' Guild. Rogishen was one such person, and his needs were simple enough. He was an herbal healer. His potions were among the best in the Lemova dune-port city, but he'd recently stumbled on some bad luck. Several months worth of special mushrooms and herbs had been lost when a gendrome straying too far into the outskirts of the city had caught his scent. His potions may have been miraculous, but his talents as a hunter were non-existent. The result was a panicked herbalist fleeing to the city as fast as his long legs could carry him. He'd spent almost every penny he had on those materials, which meant he didn't have what it cost to post a task at the Guild office. Sinika was so well adapted to the blind life that Rogishen hadn't even picked up on her affliction until after he'd passed on the information to her and sent her on her way. He was hit with a temporary pang of regret, but eventually he let off a wizened sigh, smirking as he resigned himself to whatever would come of this.

It had taken Sinika half a days walk to get to the herbalist's backwoods home. Navigating by foot was hard enough, but removing yourself from the familiar touch of the earth by taking a gargwa wagon out to this location would have made it worse for her. She knew she was near when she smelled the stench of drome musk mixed with a potent smell of sun-dried herbs. Apparently, it had found something to eat in the herbalist's home, or it would have likely moved on. Sinika was immediately put on guard. She had brought with her a sword and shield of her own making. It had been expensive for her to purchase the Rhenoplos bones and qurupeco flints, but she'd managed after selling a few commissioned long-swords to a trio of ace hunters. Not wanting to risk going into the confined quarters of her employers home, she began to beat at her shield with the handle of her sword. This served two purpose. The echoing sound painted a very effective picture of her surroundings for her, and the commotion she was creating also drew out the gendrome, not one to shy from a challenge, regardless of the species making it.

Sinika opened her eyes for the first time since leaving the city when she heard the rallying gutterals of the gendrome. It helped her to map out precise movements to pretend like she could see them. It was, if anything, out of habit rather than practicality. Her eyes had a milky coating to them, but beneath the haze over her irises was a lovely splash of color that was unique to her family. Her eyes were a mixture of blue, green, and yellow, much like the opals that were mined from the far off forest hills beyond her home village of Keppal.

She heard the first step outside of the house. It seemed too light to be the drome. Must be one of the genprey that rally to their drome counterparts, she thought for a moment. She soon heard more similarly light steps coming from somewhere to her right, and she turned, giving her ears a fresh perspective to gather in this new information. Yes... three of them. No sign of the drome yet. She readied herself for the pounce of the first one, but it hesitated at the last moment, and she turned her head just in time to get the location of the second one, which did not hesitate. In an instant, her shield went up,so solidly that the genprey lurched as the 'ground' came up to meet it unexpectedly quickly. In a swift motion, she pulled her shield arm sharply to her left, allowing the sword in her sword hand to deliver the fatal blow to the creature's chest cavity as it fell sideways on top of her. Even as it fell, she wasn't off guard for even a second. Pivoting on her forward foot, she used the spiral motion to withdraw the blade from the instantly deceased bird-wyvern, and flung herself like a gymnast to within striking distance of the prey that had hesitated in front of her. Her arm, grown exceedingly strong from manipulating metal and bone as a blacksmith, lashed out, instantly decapitating the beast before it could react. The third one was too far away for her to follow through from that to complete the massacre, but soon she heard it shrieking. And that's when she heard the drome's footfalls. It was a cocky strut. Not composed or efficient like the genprey that followed it. This creature relied on its size for everything. Obviously a young drome. If it were let to live to an old age, it would learn better, but she would not allow that age to pass. It moved fast considering its slow footfalls. It had to be big. Long legs. She'd know how big in an instant. Banging her gong-like metal shield with the handle of her blade. The picture those reverberating sounds created for her was clear as the finest crystal. It was slightly taller than she was. And heavyset for a bird-wyvern. She pondered what odd circumstances would allow such a backwards creature to ascend to dromehood. As she pondered, her body instinctively handled the situation. Leaping into the air with a strength and agility greater than could be expected of either human or wyverian, she met the creature's open mouth with the keen edge of her sword, instantly shattering it's dagger-like front fangs, and digging into the bone of its lower jaw where it hinged with the top. She herself was a good bit to the side of it, her outstretched arm bearing its doom from afar. As expected, the blade caught in the bone and tissue of the creature's jaw, and allowed her to swing froma parallel path to its back. Using the blade embedded in its mouth as a reigns, she caused it to veer sharply off to the fourth and final wyvern. The gendrome then, due to the blade having fractured the surrounding bone up into the creature's diminutive brain, lost it's footing as it drifted into death. At the last possible instant, Sinika dislodged the blade from the creature's mouth and vaulted off its back at the bewildered genprey that remained. Her path was perfect. Like a gymnast, she flipped forward over its back to her feet, and spun as soon as her feet had sufficient purchase, gashing diagonally through the genprey's ribcage, and that was that. It didn't survive more than a handful of miserable, painful seconds, and her paycheck was securely earned. She could feel blood caked over her exposed arms, and was sure she'd need to do a thorough wash of her clothes before going back into town. She had heard water trickling in a nearby brook halfway down the road to this place. Wiping the blood off her blade into the grass, she began casually striding back to town.

When she reached the point where the water could be heard, she began whistling merrily. It was a lullaby she had come up with when she was coming of age. She consoled herself in the silence with such tunes she would make up on the fly. She soon reached the edge of the stream and found it gathered in a decently sized pool before gently rolling down to rejoin itself with its neighboring streams. She barely took a moment to check her surroundings, and was soon knee deep in the pool, naked, washing the blood out of her heavy leather clothing. All the while she whistled. It was admittedly a risky thing to do. She was essentially blind to her surroundings with own whistling drowning them out. She was too happy to care, though. This had been a flawless hunt, especially for a first hunt. In between verse and chorus, though, she suddenly froze, still holding her clothes in both hands where she had been dunking them in the pool. She turned her head sharply to the right and opened her eyes again. She had heard a branch break. In one swift move, she slung the sopping clothes onto her shoulder and snatched up her sword from where it had been sitting on the nearby bank. She stood there, poised for trouble, when suddenly a recently familiar voice spoke up.

"Hold on! It's me! Rogishen! I'm the one that asked you to..." the voice started, but was interrupted by Sinika's stern tones.

"I know who it is. I don't forget a voice... did you come all this way to bring my pay?" she spoke sharply. There was a silence for a while, and then he spoke up.

"Jeesh... they were right. You are blind. Did you really clear them out?" he said. She immediately realized he must have been nodding during that silence... or else shaking his head.

"So which is it?" she snapped. "Did you bring my pay or not?" She heard his feet shift on the leaves as if he had shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"I brought it... but I need to know for sure that you killed them all. How can you hunt if you cannot see?" he murmured, as if he felt compelled to say it, but hoped that it wouldn't be heard. He shifted his weight again, and she realized he was nervous. It took her a few moments to realize why, and she sighed.

"You know... this might be a bit more comfortable if you let me get dressed..." she said in weary tones. She could hear him clear his throat and his feet shifted again. Either he had been facing away and turned to face her, or the opposite was true. Either way didn't matter to her. Her social immaturity made her something of an awkward person to be around in touchy situations like this. Her leather armor was specially designed to be water resistant, so by the time she'd given it a brisk shake, it was fit for wearing, and she pulled it on one piece at a time. Finally fully garbed, she picked up her shield and placed it on her back, strapped into a special loop in her chest armor's back. She held out a hand expectantly. "My pay?"

The man quickly placed a bag of coins in her hand, and waited as she sifted her hands through the cold metal coins. She'd have to count in later, but these were all fifty zenny pieces, so it added up to at least what she was promised. She couldn't feel any fakes from a first inspection.

"We're done then. I expect you to provide me a wagon to transport the carcasses to my smithy in town. I can put gendrome hide to good use, though I think I fouled up the only decent fangs to be had. Either way, deliver them intact, and we'll be even. I assume now that you have access to your home, this won't be an issue?" she went on bluntly. The man seemed a little put off, and he cleared his throat again.

"S-Sure... what part of town?" he asked. His voice carried as if he had been facing away from her. She smirked and shook her head, closing her eyes again, realizing her opal gaze must have been unsettling for him.

"My shop is a short distance south of the Wyverian Academy, which is on the west side of town," she responded briefly. Turning then, she started to make her way to the road to go back to town. She paused briefly while just barely in earshot of him and yelled out "Rogishen, right?" She listened for a few moments, and soon heard his response.

"Yes... That's correct." he answered in a tone that was quite hesitant.

"Well, Rogishen... you know where I live... so you come to me first if you need a hunter. Got it?" she insisted. There was a silence, and she assumed he had absentmindedly shaken or nodded his head again. "Got it?" she repeated herself.

"Absolutely," was his simple reply. This satisfied her, and off she went, whistling that old familiar lullaby.


	2. Rest and Relaxation

Lumova was a quite place at night. Occasionally, the port facing the expansive sand sea would bustle for a bit as Guild Hunters would arrive from their hunts on duneships. Exhausted from the hunts, the battle weary hunters would crowd a nearby inn or tavern long enough to drink a few drinks in celebration and then stumble to their homes drunk. Lumova was famous for it's strong drinks, so it wouldn't break the bank to get the stupor the hunters wanted. Tonight, though no hunters came in. Sandstorms had shut down the port, so the citizens who might have been light sleepers got a chance to get the long-awaited perfect sleep. Sinika, oblivious to the passing of day and night, sat hunched over the bar. The tavern maid had been awakened by the loud rapping of Sinika's shield on the bar. In spite of the sudden interruption to her slumber, she greeted the tired hunter with a smile, which was unfortunately lost on the blind smith-turned-hunter.

"Welcome to the Crested Kirin!" she greeted Sinika cheerily. "What might I do for you? Care for some of our imported Moga Stout?" She asked, but only then recognized the Hunter. "Oh! Miss Sinika! What has you up this late?" she asked, though after asking, she put the image before her together. "So you finally did it? How was the hunt?"

Sinika patiently churned the stacked questions over in her head, letting the barmaid speak. "Yes... Thank you. A small pack of Genprey. Not quite glorious as hunts go, but at least it should garner me some respect in the Guild. Thank you, Dewnia." She graciously answered the cheery maid.

"Genprey! Goodness... I don't know how you do it. Considering your... affliction..." she spoke, hesitant to refer to Sinika's blindness. Sinika offered a smile and shook her head in amusement.

"Genprey are not stealth hunters. If I can hear it, I can 'see' it," she explained. "I'm just fortunate that my employer didn't know I was blind until later."

"So it wasn't a Guild hunt?" the friendly Dewnia asked, though didn't wait for the answer before adding to the question, "So it was freelance then?" Sinika nodded, though didn't offer more. At that point, she had heard the barmaid place her drink on the counter. She hadn't specified what she wanted, but Dewnia knew Sinika as a regular. It was always the same drink: Pokke's speciality, 'Tenten Lager'. It was by far the weakest drink Lumova taverns served, and for that reason, few sold it at all. Sinika drank it for its flavor.

"I'm going to give my employer some time to spread word about me, which I'm sure he will. Once the story is old, I'm sure a liaison should be easy to acquire," Sinika said after taking a sip of her foamy drink. "I gave my services cheap, which should loosen his lips more."

The barmaid shook her head, knowing her regular customer wouldn't see it. She then poured herself a drink. It may have been unprofessional for a barmaid to drink on the job, but Sinika was like family, and nobody else would likely come in with the sandstorm going on. As she sipped at her frothy brew, she suddenly perked up. "I don't know how this didn't occur to me sooner, but I could actually use a Hunter. I need some Popo hides. A few of our regulars have been clamoring for drink sacks to bring drinks on their hunts. If you can get me some, I'd pay you in full!" she said, not lacking any excitement to do a favor for a dear friend. Sinika took a moment to think, downing a good sized gulp of her drink while she churned it over. It wasn't a hard decision to make, though. In all honesty, she struggled not to show outward excitement.

"Of course. I'll need an airship ride out to the hills, though. Can you cover the round trip?" she asked, but she knew the answer to that as well.

"Absolutely! Whatever you need! I'll even send some hot drinks along with you. It'll be no different than a Guild Quest!" Dewnia stated. "There's no rush, though. The men who are wanting the sacks are not the most likable fellows, if you catch my meaning. I'd be delighted to make them wait a few days." Sinika chuckled at that.

"Convenient. Yes. I need a few days to get all the useful hides and scales from the genprey I took down. I was careful to preserve their integrity." she said, and then downed the rest of her drink, pushing the mug back across the counter to Dewnia. "Well... I'm off. Sleep is calling my name..."

Dewnia smiled and bid her customer a good night, and it felt like the moment Sinika's feet had hit the ground, she was asleep in her bed. She was too tired to even remember walking home. It was the best sleep she'd had in years. It wasn't until late in the morning that she finally pulled herself from sleep. What awoke her was the sound of the Elder Dragon gong. She stretched as she let her body adjust to the sitting position, and soon she was standing up beside her bed. She didn't bother to make her bed, but instead walked to her kitchen area. Normally, hunters would be rushing to the dune ships to deal with the elder dragon. She wondered if it was a Jhen Mohran, or maybe Kushala Daora. Either would be exciting for her as a blacksmith. It would mean an influx of orders for special weapons made from parts of the hunt. She was practically salivating over the thought of working with Kushala Daora parts. It was then that she was reminded that she had some Genprey and drome parts to work with today, if her employer had done his part of the bargain. She thought over what she would do with her carves while she opened a sealed box containing a loaf of bread. She gave the marvelous sourdough a sniff and sighed. Reaching into her knife block, she extracted a serrated knife and sliced off a thick piece and began munching on it, slipping the rest back into its box. It had just started to harden. Not stale... but just barely starting to turn that way, which only intensified the flavor of the sourdough. Dry sourdough was the best sourdough. Satisfied with her light breakfast, she headed out the side door to her humble living quarters directly into the smithy that was built into her house.

She couldn't have been any more pleased with what she discovered. Apparently, the herbalist had hired someone to extract the parts from the gens. There were neat stacks of scraped pelts with a series of small fangs and bones atop. The bones would need to be bleached and baked, but all in all, every part she would need was there. Feeling over the smooth scales on the perfectly preserved pelts, she shook her head. "I have plans for you..." she spoke, as if talking to the heap of parts. "Many good plans..."


	3. The Last Stretch of an Old Life

It was days of grueling work dealing with the influx of orders. As it turned out, it had been a Lao-Shan Lung. Plenty of scales, heavy leathers, fangs, bone, and every variety of useful parts. She had just managed to make herself a greatsword from the gendrome parts she'd gotten before the first order came in. After that was one order after another. Switchaxes, greatswords, dual blades, and even one gunlance. She had a lot on her plate. She'd even recruited the help of one of her fellow students from the wyverian academy to keep up with the orders. She didn't like to share her secrets, but the young lad worked hard.

"Yu-Yian! How's the work on the firing chamber for the gunlance?" she yelled as she paused in hammering out a hinge of machalite and iron. The young smith answered with plenty of enthusiasm.

"Completely finished! I'm already working on the grip now!" he spoke cheerily. Yu-Yian was a human, which was uncommon for a blacksmith. Wyverians did not like to share their secrets with anybody but their own, but Yu-Yian was a prodigy in his own rights, and quite easy to control. They no more feared him blabbing their secret methods than they feared he would sprout wings and start breathing fire.

"Good... don't forget to fill the pores with machalite as you heat it. Lao-Shan bones are sturdy, but it'll do no good without some rigidity," she pointed out just before going back to hammering out the hinge. She'd already completed the lance component and barrel neatly tucked into it. The two worked together for a few more hours and when they finished, she sat down with a heavy sigh, and soon heard Yu-Yian plop down next to her.

"That was the last one, right?" he asked and pulled out a hide sack of some drink as he waited her answer, taking a swig. Sinika's forge ran several hundred degrees hotter than most smiths dared work with. The result was a constant risk of dehydration. It was the only way to properly work with bone, though. No bone could be worked by itself, and they would have just burnt to dust if it weren't for her secrets. Now they were secrets between Yu-Yian and herself.

"Yep. If I didn't know better, I'd say three quarters of that Lao-Shan landed in our laps. Too bad I'm retiring my forge soon. This level of activity sure is addictive," Sinika sighed. Yu-Yian frowned and wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Retiring? You're the best bonesmith on this side of the afterlife! Why would..." he began to ask, but then paused. "Wait... you don't plan on switching to Hunting full-time, seriously?"

"Why not? Rogishen did more than enough bragging on my part. There's no way the Guild will hold out on me and my new liaison," she pointed out. This part surprised Yu-Yian.

"Liaison? Who took you on?" he asked, suddenly spiking his enthusiasm.

"He called himself Noran. Sound familiar?" she said with a smirk. She felt quite satisfied when Yu whistled in appreciation.

"Noran 'The Garuga Rider'?" he asked and then took another sip from his sack.

"None other. He commands plenty of respect in the Guild. That's not to say he's going to plunge me straight into a Najarala or Rathian hunt right off. I've got to prove to him that it's not just a happy fluke," she added. Yu wiped a drip of his drink from his chin and shook his head.

"There's no way it's a fluke. He should know that. Four perfect kills. That doesn't happen to just anybody."

"No.. I suppose not. But even then Gendrome is easy pickings. Sure, I delivered perfect kills, but he has to know that I can hold my own against creatures that don't just drop from one stab. He promised me a Royal Ludroth for starters," she stated, not without some degree of satisfaction. Royal Ludroth parts were difficult to work, but made excellent elemental weapons. She had a few special plans for hers already. It would put her herbalist friend to good work as well. Yu-Yian whistled.

"Royal Ludroth? You're lost if it goes in the water, are you not?" he asked. Sinika snorted in reply.

"I suppose. But I think I can keep it on land. Don't underestimate me," she said sternly. Yu-Yian nodded, and then remembered himself and spoke it out.

"Of course. I'm interested in how you'll do that, though," he trailed off, looking out the front door of the shop. Standing outside it was a tall man, wrapped in a heavy cloak that appeared to be made of Iodrome hide, judging from it's vibrant red color. His face was hidden in the shadows of a large wide-brimmed hat. Sinika perked as she heard the man outside clear his throat, and soon he walked in from the sun, taking off his hat and putting it to his chest in a gesture of respect, though the gesture was lost on Sinika.

"Ah! Noran! Perfect timing!" she spoke, recognizing him from his scent. He was a lean man, but had an unfortunate condition that made him doomed to carry around a scent of exercise musk. Most people didn't notice it, but it was easily picked up by Sinika's keen nose. Noran seemed surprised by the ease with which she recognized him before he even spoke, but shook his head, dismissing the worry from his mind.

"I've got disappointing news," he said bluntly to start things off. Sinika's smile didn't decrease any. She had expected something would come up. "I couldn't get you your Royal Ludroth yet. But a farmer on the outskirts is having some issues with Jaggia nesting up in his farm. It's only a matter of time before their pheromones attract a Great Jaggi, so he wants them dealt with as soon as possible." Sinika nodded.

"Not the end of the world. Jaggi and jaggia parts are useful. What's the fee and pay?" she asked, getting to the point.

"Fifty zenny fee up front, which I've handled for you, and reward is seven hundred fifty zenny," he answered. Yu-Yian frowned at this.

"Come on. That's less than the price of a iron longsword," he grumbled. Sinika held up a hand to prevent him from saying anything further.

"That's Hunter pay. The good money comes from big game hunts. But seven fifty is only the money side of things. The Hunter Guild pays for transportation of the monster parts and that alone is worth five hundred. All in all, that's a worthwhile quest," she explained. Yu-Yian continued to grumble under his breath, but didn't say more. Noran chuckled at the apprentices naivety, but didn't add anything more to the conversation. At that, Sinika shooed him away with her hands. "You have more work to do, Noran. Don't let us tie you up." Noran nodded and again took his hat to his chest and then turned on his heel and walked on out without further word.


	4. Rain Brings Shadow

Rain came down heavily as the gargwa wagon came to a halt after a long day of winding trails up the mountainside. To any other hunter, this foul weather would have been an ill omen, but for Sinika, it just meant greater clarity. Every rain drop registered in her ears, and she knew where each one landed. It painted an image clearer than she could have ever hoped for. When Noran had said the outskirts, though, she had no idea just how far out that meant. Gargwas are not notorious for their speed, but Sinika was a naturally patient woman. She soon heard the wagon pulling away till it was completely out of earshot. Wise decision. After the delay between the issues with the Jaggia and the moment she accepted the quest, it was quite likely a Great Jaggi had caught their scent, and she'd have more than territorial females to deal with. She was at least grateful that there would most likely be few to no jaggi in the mix. The rain would have been the only saving grace that might have stopped a Great Jaggi, but she didn't know how long it had been raining before she got there. It would have washed the scent from the air, much as it was doing now, but if there had been just one dry day, that's all it would take. Regardless, though, this rain also brought with her a perfect mask for her scent. They would have to hear her coming if they were to rally. She reached behind her back and carefully and quietly unstrapped the massive sword she had brought along for the purpose. A simple sword and shield would not have been a wise choice against a Great Jaggi, if one had appeared. Admittedly, even though the alpha male would be easy to take down, she wanted something that could deliver a quick kill. Her muscles from her former trade made a Greatsword the perfect solution.

She could hear the clatter of hanging pots on the porch of the humble farmhouse even from the scarcely cleared path she had been deposited on. She had been told that the Jaggia had taken up their residence in the farm out back which was built into terraces up the hillside. She understood the appeal. These hills were too uneven to build an effective nest on. This probably wouldn't be the last time this unfortunate farmer would deal with critters in his farm. She soon stood on the porch and heard the first sign of the nesting bird wyverns. And much to her dismay, it was the whooping call of the Great Jaggi. She steeled herself for the confrontation. Sure, Great Jaggi was a cakewalk for any seasoned hunter. They weren't as agile as the Gendrome she'd tangled with earlier, so it was easier to land a heavy blow on them, but there was the nuisance that came from their thicker muscles, which made them harder to slice through. This would not be a single-blow take-down by any stretch of the imagination. Not with a sawtoothed gendrome sword, anyways. She'd have to land that first blow fast, though, as it would be the only easy hit she'd get. She peered around the side of the farm to get a image of the area beyond better. There were several shifting shapes a few dozen yards off, and she saw several obstructions.. probably bundled hay stacked hither and thither around the field. She didn't hesitate a moment. She closed the gap to the first heap in seconds, and kept her ears attuned to the commotion of the Jaggi and Jaggia. If they went silent, she'd have to move in that much faster, but they were still socializing among themselves. She rolled out from the side of that heap and was soon making a fleet-footed dash towards the howling Great Jaggi. The creature was small as Great Jaggi went. Standing similar to a raptor with a distinctive neck frill that it constantly kept flared to assert its dominance, it was only slightly taller than she was at its hip. Once she reached the final heap of harvested hay before the gap to the Great Jaggi, she let the flat of her greatsword of her own making rest on her shoulder. Taking in a deep breath, she rolled around the side of the bale and ran silently at the larger creature. She soon picked up the silence as the pack became aware of her position. Even the Great Jaggi had gone silent, raising its head slightly and cocking it to the side in curiosity.

She put an end to its wonderment in an instant as she lept with superhuman strength just a few feet from its face, and flexed her arm and shoulder to launch the sword from its resting position on her back in a high arc over her head, and brought it down with bone-crunching power on the frill of the creature. Howling in pain, it flailed helplessly with its diminutive front arms, as if trying to wipe off its face, and then it raised its head high and made its whooping summoning call. The pack was devoid of other males, but the Jaggia, the female of the species, soon rallied around it as Sinika landed with a heavy thud on the rain-soaked soil. She'd have to keep her momentum if she wanted to keep that heavy sword wieldable. If she slowed down even a moment, its weight would drag itself to the ground. Kicking heavily away from the direction of the sword's swing, it made a horizontal sweep behind her, giving her the forward momentum to sink the serrated edge of the massive sword into a leg of the Great Jaggi. It was then that the potent venom of the Gendrome teeth the blade was made of kicked in. Letting out a stiffled grunt, the Great Jaggi's legs froze up, and though it struggled to move, every muscle in its body was taut and twitchy. That put the male out of commission for the time being. Now she would have to deal with his harem. Even as the teeth of her blade sliced a jagged gash in the alpha's leg, it didn't slow down her momentum a bit. Kicking her heel into the dirt , she managed to follow through the swing to swing the blade in a perfect circle around her as she had to lean out opposite the blade to counterbalance it. She heard the satisfying crunch as her jagged sword tore through the jaw of a jaggia that had made a lunge for her, and felt its weight as the creature's head was nearly ripped out of place by the sawtooth grip. She couldn't stop there, as the circular path began to lose its momentum and dragged to a lower orbit, she jumped up again, regaining the momentum with a vertical cut. It landed perfectly across the shoulders of another jaggia, crushing it cleanly into the wet soil. This put a complete stop to her blade, but she still had her personal momentum to assist the process. As her path vaulted her over the fresh corpse, she yelled out as she used every ounce of strength in her arms to flip the blade from its mark and in a diagonal arc to the side where it met another Jaggia. There was only one left, but it was well out of her reach, so she used her momentum to launch herself at the Great Jaggi just as its temporary paralysis wore off. She mourned that her greatsword had so effectively wrecked her prey. There wouldn't be quite as good parts from this hunt. She'd mutlilated every inch of hide she'd touched with her blade, and broken more than a few good bones. Oh well. She would have shrugged if it hadn't been for the extreme exertion she was then applying to bring that blade around once more up at the underside of the Great Jaggi. The alpha male didn't get a single sound out after that as the blade crushed through and sunk between its ribs, not just piercing, but obliterating its heart and lungs. As it fell in a lifeless lump, she focused on the remaining jaggia. Her blade ground to a halt in the soil, and she panted heavily, waiting for it to approach her, but it never got a chance to. The next few instants were a confused blur for the hunter. One second there was a cowering jaggia, and the next... something else. She cursed under her breath that she had not heard it sooner, but the silent assassin before her wouldn't have been easy to pick up anyways.

Nargacuga was a rare sight in these parts. They tended to stick into the rainforests on the southern tip of the mountain range that marked the outskirts. This was was either a little lost, or had been run out by a bigger predator in its home. It was feared by even the most veteran of hunters, and now it stood before her, one clawed wingtip pinning down the quite dead jaggia, and its long whiplike tail swayed behind it, the long spines that lined it scraping the wet dirt. It stood easily a good four feet over her head, but was far longer, the low-profile flying wyvern giving it a sleek and compact front. She was way out of her depth in that instant. Calmly and coolly, she lifted her blood-stained and dirty greatsword to her back and strapped it in place. There was only one way out of this situation for her... and that was... quickly.

It hadn't taken her but an instant to turn her back on it and begun sprinting. She didn't stay a straight path. If it was going to pursue her, she would give it a hard time. She heard the ear-splitting shriek of the creature as it raised its head to the rain, but to her relief, it didn't start after her. She had left it more than its fair share of Jaggi and Jaggia meat. She made sure she was a good way out of the span of the farm before she pulled out a special felyne whistle to summon her ride out. It didn't take long before she heard the creaks and clunks of the gargwa wagon coming her way. Hopping in the back without a word, she huddled unstrapped her sword from her back and began to wipe clods of earth and chunks of hide and flesh from the sawtooth blade. She would get her pay, but it would be highly unlikely she'd get any decent parts from this hunt. Such is the life of a hunter.


	5. Heartbeat

Noran whistled appreciatively as Sinika finished her tale. Two big hunts wrapped in one. Fleeing the Nargacuga was a show of humility and raw survivalist instinct. The fact that she recognized it for what it was was credit to her. But she'd been a spectator at the arenas a few times. The telltale shriek of the shadowy flying wyvern was something she would never forget. She'd made a point of attending the arena fights regularly. Tigrex, Rathian, Rathalose, Duramboros, and Barrioth... she knew all of them and more, even if only by their roars.

"Our employer will be none too pleased to hear that even after clearing out his pest problem, he'd come to house one of the more formidable predators of the south. But this is fine. No doubt, the guild will make that their personal mark. Nargacuga is a menace to every outlander from the snowy north to the flooded south. It won't stay in that farm for long before it is seeking its next meal. Unlike a nargacuga to play a scavenger, though..." the former hunter mused. Sinika shrugged.

"Perhaps. But nonetheless, it allowed me to take on the Great Jaggi myself. Perhaps it was wounded? Maybe humbled by whatever chased it from its southern home?" She added to his thoughts. Noran nodded, though again, Sinika was blind to his affirmation. The silence that followed was brief before Noran realized his inconsideration.

"Probably. They're cunning. It wouldn't be beyond them to adapt to such an experience. Perhaps it was even an unfinished mark for another hunter?" he continued the train of thought. Sinika shook her head.

"That's the most probable reason."

Yu-Yian cleared his throat, having sat quietly by as the two passed ideas back and forth. Sinika turned her head to him, opening her eyes to cast her unsettling opal gaze on the room in his direction. She could sense his breath halt for a moment as her gaze had the affect she intended. "M-Miss... Did you manage to get _any_ parts out of the ordeal?" he submissively inquired. Being bird wyverns, their bones are light and porous, and their hides and scales are flexible and light. It was excellent for light armors. A telling smile crossed Sinika's face. He had been as excited for the parts as she had. Jaggi parts are cheap and readily available, but it became evident that he had begun to understand why she wanted to hunt for herself. There was a certain pride that came from making your own gear from the ground up. Any smith could purchase parts from hunters. But where was the fun in that?

"I'm afraid not. Not one scrap. They were pretty butchered to start with, though. I hadn't realized how badly the sawtooth blade would tear apart the usable parts. It proved handy with the Great Jaggi. The paralysis bought me plenty of time to deal with his harem, but Nargacuga is a little out of my league," She said with a chuckle. Noran chuckled at something unseen to Sinika, and she perked her ears slightly.

"No. N-no. I don't mean you should have stayed around. I don't want you to die... that is... I... errr... well..." Yu-Yian stammered out. Eventually, he sighed. "Just... you're worth more alive, I guess..." Sinika somehow doubted that was the extent of his concern. Without warning, she stepped up to him and put her hand on his cheek. It was hot to the touch. He was blushing! He didn't move as her work-worn hands touched his cheek, but she spared him further embarrassment by withdrawing her hand. She didn't say a word, and Noran burst into a full on guffaw. She could hear her apprentices heartbeat hasten. She shook her head. At least she could rely on his loyalty. It was comforting to realize his interest in her went beyond her knowledge of her former trade.

"You're right," she said, lips curled into a half-smile. "My bonesmithing secrets are worth a lot to you, aren't they?" she prodded, playing with his nervousness, either in an effort to alleviate his anxiety over the revelation of his feelings, or else to make him squirm more. It could have gone either way with him.

"Well.. of... of course! Naturally," he muttered. Apparently it had gone the latter. His heart was pounding as loudly as ever. She almost swore it was beating in her own neck. Even she became a little uncomfortable with it. That's the problem with having superbly fine-tuned hearing. You experience some of the more intense emotions whether you want to or not, and the only way to wash them away is to plug her ears. Noran cleared his throat. He was an old man, and was thoroughly amused by the two, but he'd been in Yu-Yian's shoes once before, and used his sagely experience to spare the poor lad.

"Anyways, this hunt should definitely improve your standing in the Guild, Sinika. Running away from a hunt is not always viewed as cowardice. 'Live to hunt another day,' is an expression not lost on the questatrixes. You survived a Nargacuga. Enough said..." he said and guffawed. His amusement was evident in every hearty laugh. Yu-Yian chuckled. He appreciated the diversion from his own awkwardness. Sinika was relieved to hear Yu-Yian's heartrate return to normal, and shook her head with her signature half-smile.

"We'll see. You still owe me a Royal Ludroth. Don't forget that," she pointed out. It was a lighthearted gesture. Noran's hearty laugh died away to a few last chuckles and then a sigh of contentment.

"You'll get your Ludroth. Do you have a weapon in mind for that hunt?" he asked, voice brimming with good-natured warmth.

"Lance for sure. That spongey mane is too valuable to risk my sawtooth greatsword on, and its hide is to tough for my sword and shield. If I can get at it's spine with a good jab, that'll put it down quickly and easily," she added. Noran nodded. He never would learn how much such motions were lost on his blind client.

"You've got plans. That's enough for me. I'll leave you to your apprentice for now. I'm going to mingle at the Guild hall. I've got rumors to start and tales to tell," he said, taking his hat off and putting it briefly over his chest in his signature departure. Without another word, he was gone. Yu-Yian cleared his throat and, summoning some bolstered confidence granted him by Noran's contagious laugh, he turned to Sinika.

"So... about those bonesmithing secrets of yours. Mind sharing a few?" he asked, a broad and unseen smile crossing his face. Sinika smiled, relieved that the tension was gone.

"Of course. Let's get started with basic machalite saturation..."

As the sun stood high over the shelter of the forge, Yu-Yian was soon busily at work, practicing on the remnants of the gen bones under Sinika's stern guidance.


	6. Reputations

The haunting shriek wouldn't die down. The sound of men and women suffering immeasurable pain. Fire was everywhere, and all Sinika could hear nothing but the shrieking of the dying, and the crackling of thatch and timber blazing amidst the rubble of an entire landscape of houses spanning over the horizon. She was more blind than ever. She didn't know what had led her to that moment. That moment where all she could hear was death and fire. She clenched her fists, her fingernails drawing blood from her palms, and clenched her eyes shut as tight as she could, as if that could suppress the vision before her. But even as she put her bloodied palms to her ears, she could still hear it... the death... and then a voice. She quickly pulled her hands away from her ears to try and pick it out. A survivor? She didn't know. It was familiar... but it was hard to know for sure, as it was strained and rhaspy as if from someone near death, but it was not wailing and shrieking like the souls caught in the blaze.

"You... look just like her..." the voice wheezed over the fire... though as she listened to it, the sound of the fire became a dull whisper in her peripheral hearing, and the shrieks of the dying all but vanished, granting the living the floor to speak from. "She looked just like you..." it said weakly. It was so familiar. She held her hands out to try and feel her way through the heat waves. Soon, her outstretched palms felt slightly cooler air, and she followed it. There was a path through the fire, and it led toward this haunting apparition. "She never... would have done this... Never..." the voice whispered out, becoming more quiet, and yet more distinct.

"Who?" Sinika called out to the voice. By now, all the sounds of the fire were gone... there was nothing but silence and the voice. It was male. She was sure of that now. She listened harder. It sounded so close. She outstretched her fingers, half expecting them to meet the face of the speaker himself. "Who do I look like?" She asked, though moments afterwards, she realized her poor prioritization. "Who are _you_?" Suddenly, without any warning, she felt a hand go to her forehead, as if to brush the hair away from her eyes. She felt exposed as fingers traced down around her brow the the splash scar that covered half her face.

"But you can't be her..." the voice, now whispering in her ear, said with a tinge of sadness. "She... never... would have come back..." he continued, not heeding her question, but as the words pierced the silence, she knew.

"Yu-Yian!" she exclaimed in surprise. Suddenly reaching up, she attempted to grab the arm that bore the hand that caressed her scar, but just like that, the sound of fire and death washed back in, and the arm was no longer there. She couldn't make out the sound of Yu-Yian's voice anymore. Not a grunt or moan or gasp. Again, she was blindly feeling her way through fire. She could feel the dainty hairs running down her arms vaporizing in the heat, and began to wonder how she hadn't turned into a bloodied mass of ruptured blisters in this heat. Suddenly, she felt her hand tough against a glassy surface, still warm obsidian. Clean and polished. As she held her palm to the surprisingly cool surface, she heard a roar, and suddenly the surface cracked. As her hands stayed against the surface, she could feel it flex outward, and she felt heat emanating through the cracks. A hot wind blew over her, and then she remembered. In that instant, she became overwhelmed with terror unlike anything she could remember having felt before. She yanked her hand off the flexing glass and stumbled back into the flames. She didn't heed the embers her hands found purchase on. She didn't care. She opened her mouth to scream, and in that instant, she felt the fangs sink into her chest.

It took Dewnia half an hour to calm down the huntress. Her short hair was soaking wet and her face was cold. The first thing she was lucid enough to feel was the sweat and water soaking down her back under her thin leather armor. She opened her eyes in that old habitual way as her ears took in the surroundings. Dewnia was more than patient with her. Sinika slowly pieced together the jumble of sounds coming in. There were two people in the room with her. She must have been taken into a back room of the Crested Kirin. She brought her hand up to feel the scar on her own face and offered a strained chuckle, which sounded mere steps from hysteria.

"That's the last time I drink Loc Lac Ale..." she said, her voice cracking as she strained to put up a front of control. A hand went to her wrist where her hand still pressed against her splash scar.

"You scared us all. I mean... I was worried when you passed out, but you made half my customers jump out of their skins when you started screaming. What kind of dream makes a girl do that?" Dewnia nervously inquired. The second person in the room spoke up then.

"We all have our fears. Our private Hells hide behind our eyelids just waiting for us to close them." Noran's aloof insight was very welcome in that moment. It reminded her in an instant just who she was. Suddenly anchored back in her hard-earned persona, she smiled.

"I need to remember to keep my eyes open, so to speak..." she mused. Noran let out a low chuckle. Not the guffaw she had hoped he might break the tension with, but it would have to do. Dewnia shook her head, unseen to the drenched huntress sitting back in those cramped quarters. "Whose idea was it to get drunk anyways?"

Dewnia cleared her throat and answered uneasily. "You kinda insisted on it, Miss..." Sinika shook her head. She should have known better. But she had no idea such intense fear was inside her.

"Well do me a favor. Next time I insist on getting drunk, use a placebo. Just don't let me touch the strong stuff. Flavor some water if you have to," she said, giving a genuine laugh. Noran smiled. He had chosen his client carefully. Seeing this side of her affirmed his pride in her. He patted her on the back and she could hear his boots creak as he rose to a standing position over her. It was only then that she realized she was propped up against a wall on the floor. It had taken her some time to even be fully aware of her body beyond her hands and face. She held up a hand in a silent request to be helped up, and soon felt the hard and cracked hands of Noran jerking her unceremoniously to her feet. She held her hand braced to his for a moment and then released it, brushing her fingers through her wet hair. Noran's creaking leather boots could be heard taking a step back from her, and she offered her bravest smile in his direction. "I hope this didn't make your job harder..." she chuckled. Noran, again inconsiderate of her affliction, shook his head, but soon added words to his unseen gesture.

"Nah. I'm sure a few rumors will start, but none of it will amount to bad publicity. If anything, this show of human vice may have been just what people were looking for. You know... everybody knows your usual here. Some people who don't know you know you for being the tenten girl. It's next only to being a teetotaler. Trust me. You'll get some exciting hunts out of this. I know these types. The more you appear to be a stereotypical hunter, the more comfortable people will be with recruiting you. You can start being more 'elite' later." Noran said, ending off with a brief and warm chuckle.

"Wyverians aren't known for being stumbling drunks," she chastized him. "I don't see how that fits a stereotype."

"Wyverians are also not known for being Hunters," Noran returned. "Just play the human for now."

Just play the human. She rolled that around in her head and smiled. "Well either way, I'm not going to get drunk stupid again. If Dewnia has to serve me dyed tenten in a pint stein, I'd prefer that to 'closing my eyes' like that again." Noran nodded approval, giving a stern look at Dewnia implying she do exactly that. Dewnia shook her head, wanting to wash hands of all this Hunter politics, but unlike Noran, gave Sinika the words to follow.

"Of course, Miss. I'll make sure to handle that," the barmaid assured her. "In the meantime, let's get you into some dry clothes. Noran had to baptize you in half a tub of washwater to get you to snap out of the screaming. I have some of my own clothes that might suit you so you don't have to head home in soaked leather." Sinika smiled kindly in appreciation, but soon heard Noran speak up.

"Just make sure it's not something dainty. Not so early into her new reputation."


	7. The Replacement

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 **Note to my readers:** Thank you to everybody that has given my writing your valuable time. At this point in the story I've done my best to open up Sinika's many sides for you all to have a chance to relate, but there's so much more to come. I should establish that I would sincerely appreciate honest and unrestrained criticism of every aspect of my writing, as this story is actually practice in writing for me. So if you've taken the time to get this far, I would appreciate nothing more than you taking a minute or so to type out anything that would open my eyes to a fresh perspective of my own writing. I have plans for this story, which is slowly evolving it from an adventure story into a mix of adventure, romance, and tragedy. There is much angst to come which will go hand in hand with the counterbalance of touchingly uplifting tones. Again, I am deeply grateful to everyone that has at least read up to this chapter, whether it has resulted in a follow, favorite, review, or just a casual passing skim. Well I've taken enough of your time. Now on with Sinika's life.

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Yu-Yian was a more than capable apprentice in spite of the complex techniques Sinika had to pass down, especially since many of her measures were based on resonance and radiant heat, neither of which were perceptible to Yu-Yian's markedly visual approach to smithing. But bonesmithing was so hard because of how little visual cues helped. Slowly, Yu-Yian learned to feel the vibration differences between the different stages of preparation for bone blades and shafts. He burnt and ignited more valuable bones than he would readily forgive himself for, but Sinika assured him over and over again that she had gone through far more than he would even have access to for years. It wasn't the consolation Yu-Yian needed to overcome his shame, but it at least gave him the strength to go on in spite of the many failings. By the time Yu-Yian had gotten quite used to smithing using bird wyvern bones, Sinika had become quite popular as a huntress. Under her belt was already half a dozen drome take downs ranging from velocidromes to bulldromes. It had been a relief to Noran as his distasteful job of rubbing elbows with guild upperclass and spreading rumors. It had been good for the blacksmithing business as well, even though Yu-Yian did most of the actual smithing himself. Her name still implied quality, and slowly but surely Yu-Yian had learned to deliver just that.

"So... how is the Iodrome vest coming?" Sinika asked as she walked into her forge, having heard the hammer of Yu-Yian beginning work so bright and early on that particular day. She was proud of his passion. It was rare that he waited much past sunrise to get started. Sinika came to truly appreciate the welcome sound of bone and metal being worked in the morning under Yu's hammer. She breathed in the hot air of the forge with a tinge of smoke mingling in it. It was as invigorating to her as the freshest breeze after a dewy morning.

"Finished that last night," he beamed proudly, stopping his hammering. She frowned as he stopped, but at the same time appreciated him letting his work suffer a setback on her behalf. He'd no doubt have to completely reheat what he was working on just to finish it up, which could take him up to half an hour more. "Working on the gauntlets now. I never would have guessed that ioprey hide could be put directly into the embers without bursting into flames. Using molten gravios hide to saturate the leathery hide of an iodrome? Where did you learn that anyways?" he asked. Sinika chuckled, always pleased with the depth of his curiosity.

"Family secret. It only works on iodrome hide, though. If you tried the same technique on say... Wroggi hide, you'd just get a bunch of burnt and brittle flakes." Suddenly, an expected sound came up to the front of her forge, and she nodded her head in its direction. Yu-Yian followed her motion and saw a wagon parked out front, towed by a brutish aptenoth. "I think you'll find this delivery much to your liking." she said. Yu-Yian pulled his thick leather apron off and tossed it across a treated stump chair nearby and walked up to the waiting wagon. A felyne, busily working at the knots holding down a bulging tarp, paused and gave a bow to the smith's apprentice.

"Greetings, young master! I hope I'm not too early with this. Sinika said you were an early riser," the felyne mewled. Pulling aside the tarp, Yu-Yian's heart doubled its pace, and he fairly squealed in unbridled excitement.

"You finally got your Royal Ludroth hunt!" he exclaimed. The stacks of spongey mane, tough waterproofed hide, and heavy bones was a bountiful feast for the creativity of the young smith's apprentice. "And sheesh! So much undamaged hide! Did you scare it to death or something? There isn't a nick in this mane at all!" he exclaimed, his voice quite a few decibels louder than it should have been for this early in the morning.

"It was another swift kill. That bulldrome tusk lance you made a few days ago did the job magnificently. I'll admit, it still took a few dozen jabs to get at its spine, and I ruined some invaluable chest plates in the process, but it is what it is," Sinika said, her lip curling up into a half-smile. She felt a sudden rush of footsteps, and suddenly without warning, she felt Yu-Yian's arms circle her shoulders in a hug. Her face grew hot with a blush, and she stood there awkwardly with her arms pinched at her sides for what felt like an eternity before Yu-Yian let her go. It was just a hug. Friendly and excited. But boy had it gotten her flustered. She hoped Yu-Yian was not looking at her as she futilely attempted to suppress her blush, and much to her relief, she heard him again over the pounding of her heart as he began to unload the wagon for the felyne deliveryman. Shaking her head in an attempt to break herself out of her unexpected rush of emotions, she joined him in unloading the cart. Soon, the two of them were brainstorming ways to utilize the Ludroth parts to make an elemental switchaxe. Sinika found herself overly excited with every new idea the young apprentice threw out. She may have been a prodigy in bonesmithing techniques, but Yu-Yian was an artist. His designs were brilliant. Before she knew it, the sun was high overhead baking the air outside of the forge. Excusing herself as Yu-Yian went back to working on the iodrome gauntlets, she headed towards the marketplace to find her herbalist friend from her first job. Their idea for the switchaxe would need a power vial that Rogishenn's expertise made him her first stop for this issue. She was going to give her apprentice something to be truly proud of.


	8. New Faces

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 **Note to my readers #2:** So I know I've been cramming short chapters in like a machine gun. I write when I can get a coherent idea out, and usually do each chapter in one sitting. I hope this isn't discouraging readers. I promise, when this is all finished, it won't be a short read, but hopefully by keeping the chapters short, readers will feel less obligated to sit down and read for three hours just to make sure they don't lose their place when they get up. Maybe that's just me, though. Well... anyways, more excitement in this chapter. I may go about this the wrong way, but I'll never know till I publish it and get responses. Call this chapter something of a baited hook. Anyways, see you storyside!

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The satisfying clank as the sword-edge of the switchaxe joined the axe-head was as sweet as the finest crystal bell in Sinika's ears. Nothing could have been more musical than the gentle hiss as the blades locked, linking the phial Rogishen had made for the purpose to the veins running throughout the swordblade. Priming the vial with a special toggle in the handle, she raised the heavy blade over her head and swung diagonally down across her front through the air. She could feel the heat as the phial's contents, hissed through the air as the blade used the centripetal force to pump the fluid. In an arc in front of her, the fluid-turned-vapor hissed violently, and then detonated. The blast blew Sinika's short hair back for a moment before it went back to resting down behind her ears. She heard an appreciative whistle from behind her, and pulled a chain link in the handle to disengage the phial and switch the blade into axe mode, the sword blade vanishing into the axe head. Seconds later, she felt the arms of her overexcited apprentice circle her shoulders in what was slowly becoming a trademark of his interactions with Sinika. She didn't blush quite as badly now, but there was still a warm glow on her cheeks as he hopped back, clapping excitedly, giddy as a concert fangirl. Yu-Yian was easily excited by anything having to do with blacksmithing, and this latest creation made him doubly excited because it had been a collaborative effort between himself and his teacher. It helped for Sinika to feel his heartbeat. Just like his anxiety imprinted on her, his excitement did in a big way. She could hear his radiant excitement and even joy, and thus could feel it as if it was her own. A blessing and a curse that comes with being a blind girl with superhuman hearing.

"It's perfect," she mused, getting a feel for the balance of the axe. "Seamless transformation between modes... no leaks in phial connectivity. And Rogishen's mix sure does its job well. Flawless..." Yu-Yian laughed openly and crossed his arms.

"Isn't that what we expected? The only part I doubted was that my hinging mechanism would work properly, but your techniques were exactly what I needed! A perfect Royal Ludroth switchaxe!" Yu-Yian beamed. It was just the two of them there in the shop, and soon it would be just Yu-Yian. There were a few commissions in, and he'd be busy. Sinika, on the other hand, planned to put this new weapon of hers to good use. She wouldn't worry him about it... she owed him a day of relaxation to do simple commissions. It used to be like therapy for her, so surely he would feel the same, especially since he was the more passionate of the two about smithing. But she planned to do him one better. To put the ribbon on the package, she was going to commission him to do an original piece with her next hunt's material. It was her way of officially giving over full ownership of her forge. The switchaxe was his doctoral thesis, and he had completed it flawlessly. She knew it would be difficult to convince him to take pay for doing work for her, but she hoped he would appreciate the sentiment and meaning behind it. Whistling an old familiar lullaby to herself, she was soon on an airship headed to the icy northern mountains. She would be gone for a week or so for this hunt. She had come with nothing but her switchaxe, but fortunately, the guild would readily take care of her needs during the hunting expedition. The hunt of the day was a Tigrex. It had much the same posture and build of a Nargacuga, but with much more unbridled rage and much less sharp tailspines to lash out with. In a way, this was her graduation as well. Hunting bird wyverns hardly counted as hunting at all. Yes, it was more useful closer to the cities to have a plethora of hunters to do bird wyvern hunts, as those raptor-like wyverns tended to stray towards people more readily, but the more powerful brute, leviathan, and winged wyverns had a more devastating affect on ecosystems in a broad sense, and a lot of the Guild's job was wildlife conservation, interestingly enough. This particular Tigrex had come in from the glacial north where it had no doubt depleted its supply of Popos and Aptenoth, and grown tired of munching on starving baggi. Now it was encroaching on a place known as Pokke, which was famous for its ice, herb, and fur exports. She would be pretty far from Pokke itself, but her job was to kill or capture this Tigrex before it became a more pressing problem.

High above the clouds on the deck of the small airship, Sinika whistled over the gusts of wind to calm herself. This high above the earth was unnerving for Sinika. It was the first time she felt truly blind in years, and she hated it. She could have been headed anywhere. The ground nowhere to be detected. It was like being suspended in the vacuum of space with not even the stars out to see. It was borderline terrifying. All she could hear was the whistling of the wind and the mewling of the felyne pilot guiding their ship above the clouds. She could hear occasionally the rumble of thunder from some storm going on far below them. The air was thin where they were. Thin, and yet humid. For all she knew, they could be in the middle of a cloud. Soon, she heard the felyne approaching her, abandoning the helm temporarily. The small bipedal cat stopped near her and paused there for a few moments. She tried to imagine he must have been saluting her or making some physical gesture of respect to her, but she didn't know at all what he was doing.

"Young Miss, we're nearing Pokke. It's snowing below us, so it's unlikely they will be out and about to greet us, so I've elected to transport you directly to the Guild camp, if Miss approves," the tiny cat stated. Sinika nodded her approval and went back to whistling her childhood lullaby to comfort herself. The cat turned on its heels and headed back to the helm, and the huntress hugged the switchaxe to her chest, as if it offered her some degree of protection from the looming void of the sky. Soon, though, she could feel the chill of snowflakes on her cheek, and listened intently for the ground to rise to her. They had to be getting close. Soon, she could hear the whistling of the wind through treetops, and finally eased her grip on the broad switchaxe. Soon, she heard the thud of the anchor of the airship thudding to the ground, and gears squeaked as it was reeled in, bringing the ship towards the ground. As soon as she could hear the ground mere feet from the underside of the ship, she stood up and walked to the edge and jumped down. She heard protest from the felyne as it watched her cross the twelve foot gap to the ground, but she rolled expertly and was soon back to whistling. It took all her strength of will not to get on all fours and kiss the snowy turf. She could hear the flapping of leathery fabric in the wind, and walked towards it. Soon, the snow and wind stopped chilling her exposed face, and she sat down on the beds positioned in the shelter of the tent. As she shook the melting snowflakes from her hair, her breath suddenly ceased. She could hear a heartbeat nearby. Someone was laying in one of the beds. Turning to the source of the nearby figure, she held her breath to listen to the sound of the person's breathing and heartbeat. Her blood went cold as she recognized the familiar scent the moment she could pick it up.

"Yu-Yian, you damned fool! What the hell are you doing here?!" she exclaimed. The figure didn't stir. He must have been deep in slumber. Reaching over, she gripped the front of her apprentice's shirt and jerked him up suddenly to a sitting position. She could hear him sputter as he was so suddenly woken, and he wiped his eyes as he recognized Sinika through sleep-bleary eyes.

"You're finally here! I wait..." he was suddenly cut off as Sinika's palm left a sharp sting through his face. She held her hand poised to follow through her slap with a backhand, but paused there.

"What the hell are you doing here? You weren't even supposed to hear about this trip..." she growled at him. Feeling a little bit hurt at her lack of welcoming, he muttered briefly and than spoke up.

"Noran told me about it. He stopped by when you had already headed to the port, so I left to beat you here. You know you forgot replacement phials for your switchaxe?" he grumbled. Sinika pressed her palm against her forehead and shook her head.

"Dammit, Yu... You know that only Hunters are allowed in Guild camps..." she chastised him. Yu Yian's lips curled into an unseen smile, and he proudly spoke back.

"That's easy enough. I got a Hunter's license a week back. Don't worry, I'm still a fulltime smith. I just needed access to the guild's quest board so I could keep tabs on you when you suddenly vanished on me." Sinika sighed at this. She was at least relieved that he hadn't gone on a hunt. But still, his presence here left her more than just a little uneasy. She immediately was haunted with the imagined sound of his screams as he was chomped by a Tigrex or pummeled off the edge by the brutish wyvern's charge.

"Fine... thanks for bringing the phials, but you're not leaving this camp." she insisted adamantly. Yu-Yian tensed at the firmness in her voice.

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," he stated coldly. It was a side of him she had not heard before, and she immediately felt his eyes on her, gaze cold as ice, even though she couldn't begin to describe what such a gaze would look like. It turned her own voice to pleading.

"You're... I... Please... You're the heir to my smithing techniques. I couldn't bear for them to be lost forever..." she said, but her heart was somewhere else entirely. She wanted to tell him that she cared too much about him to risk him dying, but she kept that concealed. "I beg you... Don't risk that much..."

"Not happening," he said in softer tones. It was yet another side of him she had never heard before. If she had not been so sure of his voice and scent, she would have thought him an imposter. He had seen through her facade. "You may think this inappropriate, but you yourself are more valuable than your techniques." Sinika's breath halted for a moment. Was this a confession of affection? She thought back to all his enthusiastic hugs. Was there more to it than she had assumed?

"Promise me you're just going to stay at a distance," she pleaded. Yian's voice went back to his old familiar enthusiasm, though what he said offered her no comfort.

"Of course. I didn't bring a weapon anyways. I was only planning to stay by with some of Rogishen's potions and some phials." Sinika's blood ran cold, and again she imagined his despairing cries of pain as she imagined him torn in two by razor-sharp Tigrex fangs. She didn't say anything, though. He was showing her sides of him she had not thought existed. She didn't know how to react. She simply offered a prayer that this wouldn't be something she would regret.


	9. The First and Final Kiss

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 **Note to my readers #3:** This chapter has been hard to motivate myself to get started on. Just a slow couple of days, I guess. Sorry to keep all you guys waiting! As an apology in advance for the contents of this chapter, please don't hate me. This is a very emotional stretch, and I hope it is bearable for all my readers. Well... see you all story-side!

 **.::.**

"Phial! Phial! Phial!" Sinika's voice was loud and sharp, echoing into the empty dry air of the snowy peaks near Pokke. They had hunted the Tigrex without luck for days. Now that they had seen it, it was too much for a lifetime. Sinika was running along in a trench at the bottom of a fifteen foot drop with one angry Tigrex plowing towards her from behind. There was barely enough room for the wyvern's broad wing-arms, so it was moving far slower than it may have ever travelled in its chaotic and angry could hear the snow above her crunching where Yu-Yian was running parallel to her on the ledge. That is... she could hear him in between the ear-piercing roars of the enraged monster on her heels. She suddenly felt the air open up around her, and she peeled off to the side, holding a hand up over her head towards the ledge. Just in the nick of time, she felt a large phial pressed into her palm, and she immediately snapped it in place in her switchaxe. Acting almost faster than she could think, she began the swing of the great switchaxe, toggling the mechanisms to switch it into a sword mid-swing. As its massive weight swung out to the side, she could hear the hiss as the phial engaged the veins running through the blades, and the explosive vapor left a trail halfway through the swing. With perfect timing, the Tigrex blasted out of the constricted cavern like a bat out of hell, only to be met in one of its wingarms by the massive sword blade. There was the sound of crunching bone, and Sinika felt the monster's hot blood spatter her arm, and then that expected explosion as the phial's special liquid detonated, further obliterating the monster's wing-arm in a intensely hot blast. She knew that wouldn't be enough to put it down, so she used the momentum to swing the sword in an arc around her, switching it back into axe mode in the middle of her swing. Far sooner than she expected, she heard a roar, still not of pain, but of fury as the creature spiraled with its shattered second wing-arm dangling into the snow, and with its remaining three legs, it charged her. She wasn't ready for it to bounce back so fast. It was like destroying one of its limbs had only made it faster. She couldn't get the blade of the heavy axe into position in time before she was suddenly thrown back by a full-on headbut from the giant rage-machine. It took her a second or so to register the pain, and she lay in shock on the ground as the creature plowed past her with its momentum, one of its hind legs stepping on her arm on its way. She lay on her back in shock, unseeing eyes staring wide-open at the sky above. Her ears were ringing, and she was truly blind as she lay there. Then, the adrenaline kicked in. Her hearing returned sharply, and she hopped to her feet. She went raise her sword arm with the switchaxe in it, but it refused to come. Something was wrong, but she didn't have time to figure out what. Reaching around her, she soon found the switchaxe sitting nearby in the snow, and she used the arm she still had command over to pick it up. In an adrenaline-amplified show of superhuman strength, she raised the switchaxe up, and toggled it into sword mode. She might only have one more swing left in her, so she braced herself. Nothing happened, though. In fact, it was frighteningly quiet. Until she heard Yu-Yian. His words were all hysterical. She couldn't make out what he was trying to say. Soon, he was directly in front of her, and she felt a hand go to her shoulder. He sounded panicked. Soon, she picked out what he was saying. Even hearing what he was saying word for word, her mind only managed to translate the sum of his frantic words in a basic idea. Apparently the Tigrex was dead... it had lunged off the cliff, unable to stop itself with one less arm, but it had... taken her arm with it?" she paled for a moment. Dropping the switchaxe, she reached over with her good arm to grip the wrist of her unresponsive arm, and felt... nothing... she reached higher and higher, and still nothing... and then she felt it. She had thought it had just stepped on her... but she could feel the tattered flesh from its bitemarks. The heat of her blood was radiating from the wound, but at least it seemed to not be bleeding profusely. She felt arms go to her shoulders as she started to list a bit, and then... nothing.

It could have been hours. It could have been days. Sinika felt the infinite void of her awareness starting to materialize as distinctive sounds came in, and her mind began to make sense of them. It was warm and dry around her. There were half a dozen men and women around her, all muttering and whispering to each other, she made a motion to sit up, but found she was restrained. There was a leather strap across her forehead, and again across her stomach and ankles. She heard an apologetic man mutter at her, and the restraints were removed one by one. Sitting up, she felt a fatigue over her. She must have been immobilized for days at least based on how sore and tired her body was.

"I'm sorry, Miss. The restraints were necessary. You're lucky to be alive," the young man over her spoke, the rest of the voices going silent. "Your partner will be here shortly. He carried you over three miles, you know?" the man informed her. She opened those hauntingly beautiful unseeing eyes and stared off into oblivion numbly. She could hear the murmur start to pick up again for a moment, and then heard the familiar frantic voice of her apprentice approaching. He went silent when he broke through the crowd, and she immediately felt a hand grip her own remaining hand, fingers intertwining with hers, and she felt his lips press to the back of her hand. Slowly, her situation caught up to her. For the first time in a great many years, tears welled up in her blank eyes, and she closed them. Those fingers twined with hers did not leave as her body lurched with sobs for hours. She felt the warmth of Yu-Yian's cheek pressed to the back of her hand, and that was what she focused on until her regained her composure. She went to wipe her tear-stained face with her other arm, but when nothing happened, that sobered her up a bit. She'd been crying over the loss of her arm, but in spite of that, she hadn't accepted it fully yet. It had sunk in, but it would be a long time before she stopped trying to use it. She sniffled and soon pulled her fingers from Yu-Yian's and raised her palm to his cheek. She could feel tears on his cheeks as well, and she cupped his face gently in her hand, and whispered.

"I... am glad you're still alive..." she whispered, her voice weak and wearied. He placed a hand overtop hers and she felt him nod.

"You beat me to it... They found the Tigrex, though... you did a number on it. That one swipe sheared its wingarm off entirely almost at the shoulder... It apparently died when its spine shattered at the base of the cliff some two hundred feet down. Their information had been incorrect about it though, and the quest assigner has paid for your medical recovery to compensate you. The Guild is actually furious about it. Hunters are not easy to come by of your quality... bad information is the worst way to lose a..." he trailed off. She knew what he was getting at. It would be unlikely that anybody would give her a task again. She'd proven she could compensate for her blindness well enough, but it would be impossible to convince someone to give her a hunt with only one arm. She opened her eyes again, a fire in her blind gaze.

"I'm not done..." she spoke, but suddenly felt Yu's hands clench over where her hand was on his cheek. She expected him to speak up... to tell her in a no-nonsense that she had to drop the hunting. She steeled herself for it. She was ready to insist even if she had to repeat herself a thousand times that she would keep hunting. He said nothing, though. "I... I can't go back to smithing, you know... You know that, right? It takes two hands to work metal..."

"I know..." he answered understandingly. Almost patronizingly. "I... If you want to hunt, I'll do whatever I can... But we didn't give up on you anyways. Noran is already out spreading tales of your badassery in the guild halls," he replied with a chuckle, bringing the first hint of levity to the situation. "They named a drink after you at the Crested Kirin, you know. Courtesy of Dewnia. Not something you'd like, though," he chuckled. Sinika nodded, suddenly laughing freely.

"Lemme guess... strongest drink in the tavern?" she asked. Yu-Yian laughed loudly at that.

"How'd you guess? They call it 'Sinika's Brutesbane'. Dewnia won't sell it to you if you don't say the 'Sinika's' at the beginning of it. It's for when you want to get drunk-stupid in a hurry. Knocks you flat on your butt in a few sips," he chuckled. "Your injury may have cost you some credit with the Guild, but if you ask just about anybody local, they'd probably trust you against a Jhen Mohran with a butter knife," he added. "However, because of your injury compounded with your fame, the Guild will be monitoring you. You won't be able to take just any hunt a local trusts you with. You're iconic now. If they let you die against a Barroth or Arzuros after taking on a Brute Tigrex, it'll destroy the morale of all new Guild Hunters. It's already bad enough that they sent a two star hunter on a G-Rank quest. You're something of a hero. They won't let you die if they can help it," he pointed out. Sinika grumbled at that.

"Politics..." she muttered. Yu-Yian let out another good-natured laugh.

"Well... like it or not, your name means something more than just who you are now. This political sword might cut both ways, though. Noran seems to have some plans. That's why he is spreading rumors about you. There will be an outrage if the Guild shelves you completely," he said, and then abruptly, as if it were the natural next step of the conversation said something that caught Sinika completely off guard. "I love you, you know."

Sinika sat silent for a bit, open eyes focusing on where his voice had come from. She couldn't see anything, but she felt the need to look into his eyes. She didn't know _what_ to say. She'd thought of the possibility of it. He'd been more dedicated to her and her work that most would have let themselves be. But somehow, in spite of all the signs, she hadn't been sure.

"I... Thought you should know that..." he murmured and she felt his gaze tear from her, and he spoke to the side away from her. She used her good hand to turn his face back to her and without a moment of hesitation, she sat up and their lips locked. Neither one of them knew or cared how long that lasted. It was neither overly passionate, nor was it underwhelming. It spoke of the true nature of their feelings in a way Sinika knew she could never put to words. It was a patient kiss. It was not the foreboding kind of kiss that promised passionate ups and would inevitably deliver painful downs in between. It was the kind of kiss that said that she would never for even one day be different than she was right then. It was a grounding kiss. It painted for the two of them a reality they could feel secure and happy in. Sinika became lost in the sound of his hearbeat. It was odd to her. It wasn't racing like she had expected. It was almost as if confessing his love had calmed him... relieved him of a heavy burden. For the briefest of instants, she was reminded of how she had told him she was afraid of him risking her smithing knowledge, but in that kiss, those pangs of guilt materialized as a pair of tears at the corners of her closed eyes, and like tears, were shed and gone from her. Gone forever on the far side of the landmark in her timeline titled, 'The First and Final Kiss'.


End file.
